Run function from the command line

Question

I have this code:

def hello():
    return 'Hi :)'

How would I run this directly from the command line?

---

_{See also: What does if __name__ == "__main__": do? to explain the standard idiom for getting the code started;
Why doesn't the main() function run when I start a Python script? Where does the script start running (what is its entry point)? for why things like this are necessary}

Answer 1

With the -c (command) argument (assuming your file is named foo.py):

$ python -c 'import foo; print foo.hello()'

Alternatively, if you don't care about namespace pollution:

$ python -c 'from foo import *; print hello()'

And the middle ground:

$ python -c 'from foo import hello; print hello()'